Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I happy to speak on this Stage and I commend an Teachta Ó Broin on this Bill. As a Deputy in north Kildare, where people are struggling to find a place to rent or to buy, I believe the boom in short-term lets exposes much of what is wrong with us in this State, politically and socially, because of a particular kind of political priority. This priority puts the desires and greed of the short-term market over the basic human needs of people, workers and families who are desperate to rent or buy a home. Both renting and buying are becoming impossible now when wealth funds hoover up developments and, in the latest development, developer risk is to be underwritten by the taxpayer.

Recent statistics show that Airbnb outstrips long-term lets in every county. This short-term market is putting the kibosh on workers completely. Quite simply, we have to give our renters a break. This Bill will do that, not by cajoling or asking nicely, but by using the law to fine agents and platforms that advertise properties without the appropriate planning permission or exemptions. Short-term lets would have to comply with the Planning and Development Act 2000 and where they did not, a spot fine would ensue. We simply cannot have people working harder and harder, in the vice of a cost-of-living crisis, only to find that people who use the short-term market are literally holding the key to a property that could be somebody's home.

We have to get our priorities right, which means prioritising human and social need over market and corporate greed. As we know, figures that were released to my party colleague Deputy Ó Broin by local authorities in Dublin, Sligo, Cork and Galway showed an exceptionally low level of compliance with planning law when it comes to lets of under 90 days. It sticks in my craw, as a politician and a Teachta Dála for north Kildare, to see my constituents, some of whom are in their 60s, sleeping in their cars or sofa-surfing at this stage of their lives. The short-term let market has divided and now conquered the rental market. It is socially unacceptable and morally repugnant that our renters are treated in this way.

I am taken aback by the contribution of the now departed Minister of State, Deputy Burke, when he said that the Government was not opposing the Bill. He said that while he acknowledges "that it is well intentioned and has some merit", he has something better up his sleeve, apparently for later. I heard Deputy Ó Broin on KFM this morning liken the current situation to hoarding food in a famine. It is exactly that. I cannot believe the number of notices to quit that are coming into my constituency office in the past two months. It is an absolutely hopeless situation. We are not enjoying this. We have plenty to be getting on with, without highlighting the crisis we are in. We are in a real crisis and it is time for change.

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